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Santa Cueva — Covadonga

The Santa Cueva chapel set into a rock face at Covadonga, with a waterfall pouring from beneath the cave into a pool
Artwork FileAsturias · Spain

Santa Cueva

SeenJul 2024

Cave shrine of the Virgin of Covadonga · Covadonga, Asturias

Photo: Manuel Velazquez / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0), the photo used in the World Art Utopia post. Full photograph shown.

The Holy Cave of Covadonga is a grotto in the cliff that shelters the image of the Virgin of Covadonga, above a waterfall that drops into a pool. Its present form comes from a reform by Asturian architect Luis Menéndez Pidal after the Spanish Civil War. Source Source Source Checked

Seen Jul 2024 — A Wikimedia Commons photo with camera date July 23, 2024, shows the chapel set into the cliff above the pool. Source Checked

More photos

Mounted 19th-century photograph of the Covadonga cave, showing an earlier chapel with a pale facade set in the cliff above a waterfall, captioned La grotte de Pélage à Covadonga
1886 The earlier, pre-1939 chapel (album dated 1886)Photo: Aymard de Saint-Saud (Bibliothèque nationale de France) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Tall view of the limestone cliff at Covadonga, with the chapel tucked into the cave mouth halfway up and a green pool below
2024 Whole cliff above the poolPhoto: Giorgio Galeotti / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

💡 4 things to know

  1. A church that hung from the rockThe first documented church was a wooden structure wedged into the cave on cantilevered beams. A fire on October 17, 1777, reduced it to ashes, along with the image of the Virgin. Source Source Source Checked
  2. The present Virgin dates from 1778After the fire, the chapter of Oviedo Cathedral donated a new image: a standing Virgin holding the Child, unlike the seated figure that was lost. Source Source Checked
  3. Lost and found in 1939The image disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and turned up in spring 1939 at the Spanish Embassy in Paris, then returned to the cave. Source Source Checked
  4. A cave meant to be the templeMenéndez Pidal added a small chapel and kept the decoration sober so the cave itself would act as a natural temple. Turismo Asturias says the chapel follows Asturian pre-Romanesque patterns, while the sanctuary calls it neo-Romanesque. Source Source Conflicting

📍 Where it is

In the cliff face of the Covadonga sanctuary in Asturias, above the waterfall and pool known as El Pozón. Source Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

Opens a map at these coordinates.

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 177717 Oct

    Fire destroys the hanging church

  2. 1778

    Oviedo Cathedral chapter donates present image

  3. 1874

    New Frassinelli chapel in the cave

  4. 1886

    Album photo of the earlier chapel (by 1886)

  5. 1939

    Virgin image recovered in Paris

  6. 201316 Mar

    Chapel above the waterfall

  7. 202423 Jul

    Cliff, cave and pool

Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.

✅ The facts

Also called
Holy Cave of Covadonga; its Virgin is known as la Santina Source Source Checked
Present layout
Reform by architect Luis Menéndez Pidal, begun after the Spanish Civil War Source Source Checked
Earlier chapel
1874, by Roberto Frassinelli, in stuccoed and painted wood (the sanctuary says consecrated in 1874; Showcaves says its first stone was laid that year; Turismo Asturias dates the remodel to 1875) Source Source Source Conflicting
Image
Standing Virgin with the Child, donated in 1778 by the chapter of Oviedo Cathedral Source Source Checked
Feast day
September 8, the Day of Asturias, ending a nine-day novena Source Checked
Location
Covadonga, Asturias, Spain Source Source Checked

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: November 13, 2026 · How we verify art